Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Guns N Roses Pinball Featurette (Jersey Jack Pinball, 2020)

Straight Down the Middle·video·25m 43s·analyzed·Oct 5, 2020
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Jersey Jack Pinball's Guns N' Roses featurette showcases game design, band collaboration, and concert-themed mechanics.

Summary

Jersey Jack Pinball's official featurette on Guns N' Roses (2020) features extensive interviews with designer Eric Meunier, software director Keith Johnson, and programmer Joe Raymond about the game's development. The video highlights unprecedented band cooperation, concert-themed design philosophy, innovative mechanical features (Hot Rails, guitar locks), extensive licensing assets (18 three-hour concerts, thousands of photos, tour posters), and three-tier pricing strategy (Standard/Limited/Collector's Edition). Key themes include Slash's hands-on involvement, the goal of recreating a concert experience, and technical innovations in sensors and lighting.

Key Claims

  • Eric Meunier designed Guns N' Roses to create a concert experience rather than a band tribute, intentionally not referencing the earlier Data East game

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'My vision for the game was to make the concert... I didn't want it to be similar to the other game, the early Data East game that John did... I purposefully never played that game while I was working on this.'

  • Slash was the primary creative contact and drove band involvement in the game's development with daily interaction

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'He is a person who is so passionate about everything he does and just never took his foot off the gas when he was working with me on the game. Every single detail that I discussed with him daily... he'd reply back within 10 minutes.'

  • The game features over 200 standard LEDs, over 350 in Limited Edition, and over 600 RGB LEDs in Collector's Edition

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'There's over 200 in the standard edition, and then over 350 in the limited edition, and over 600 RGB LEDs in the collector's edition version of the game.'

  • The Standard Edition was priced lower than previous Jersey Jack games to increase location and home placement

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'The standard edition is priced lower than we ever priced the games before at Jersey Jack Pinball which is awesome I pushed hard for that because I wanted more of these games out in locations and I wanted more people to have them in their homes.'

  • The game features full-length songs (e.g., 9.5 minutes of 'November Rain') rather than snippets

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'The fact that you're playing real songs that don't just get cut out. You're not just playing snippets of music. You're playing the full nine and a half minutes of November Rain.'

  • Slash contributed directly to rule design, specifically suggesting 'Power Chord' as the name for the jackpot award

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'I Game Skyped Slash on Skype and I'm talking through these rules with him... and Slash is like how about power chord and I'm just like dude that's it that's the perfect word.'

Notable Quotes

  • “My vision for the game was to make the concert. Concert experience. Bring it home. What do you see at a concert? You see lights, you see amps, the ramps going crazy, pyrotechnics, a big stage with lights everywhere, moving spotlights.”

    Eric Meunier@ 5:49 — Core design philosophy for the game's thematic execution

  • “Never before have I experienced, and anyone here, this kind of cooperation with a licensor, this amount of content given to us, this amount of push from them to present the license in the best way possible. Are we ever going to see a game like this again? Probably not in this lifetime.”

    Eric Meunier@ 16:08 — Highlights unprecedented licensing cooperation and suggests this level of band involvement may be unique

  • “He's just like, honor and a privilege to meet you. I love your music! I'm leaving here!”

    Eric Meunier@ 23:29 — Anecdote showing the impact of meeting Slash in person during production

  • “This game has something for everybody. The standard edition is priced lower than we ever priced the games before at Jersey Jack Pinball which is awesome.”

    Eric Meunier@ 12:57 — Addresses market positioning and accessibility compared to previous JJP releases

  • “I didn't want it to be called jackpot so I Skyped Slash on Skype and I'm talking through these rules with him and trying to come up with what is a good musical term.”

    Eric Meunier@ 12:03 — Demonstrates Slash's involvement in naming game mechanics to fit the band's aesthetic

Entities

Eric MeunierpersonSlashpersonKeith JohnsonpersonJoe RaymondpersonDuff McKaganpersonMelissa ReesepersonArian MuellerpersonDane Henry Jr.person

Signals

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Timeless art direction strategy: zombie/skeletal aesthetic chosen to represent band's 30+ year history and iconic status without dating the game to a specific era or decade

    high · Eric Meunier: 'This band has been famous for over 30 years. They're iconic and they're timeless, and we wanted to represent that in the artwork. We went with this timeless, zombie, skeletal look.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Deliberate design separation from Data East's 1990s Guns N' Roses game; Eric Meunier intentionally avoided referencing the earlier title to create a new, distinct experience

    high · Eric Meunier: 'I purposefully never played that game while I was working on this... I wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally, subconsciously looking at anything there.'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Unprecedented level of band cooperation and licensing asset provision: 18 three-hour concert recordings, thousands of tour photos, access to band photographers, tour posters, and active creative participation from Slash and band members

    high · Eric Meunier: 'Never before have I experienced, and anyone here, this kind of cooperation with a licensor, this amount of content given to us... Are we ever going to see a game like this again? Probably not in this lifetime.'

  • $

    market_signal: Standard Edition priced lower than previous Jersey Jack releases to increase location placement and home collector availability, addressing market accessibility concerns

    high · Eric Meunier: 'I pushed hard for that because I wanted more of these games out in locations and I wanted more people to have them in their homes.'

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.077

0:00
🎵 Take me down to the paradise, see the world, the grass is painted, the girls are pretty 🎵 I want you to please take me home 🎵 Take me down to the paradise city Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty Oh, won't you please let me home
1:00
You were young and your heart Wasn't open but You used to say live and let live You know you did, you know you did, you know you did But if this ever-changing world in which we're living Makes you give in and cry Say live and let die Live and let die
1:58
Thank you. What does it matter to you When you got a job to do You got to do it well You got to give the other guy Hey Oh, oh, oh My name is Eric Minyer and I am the game designer for Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses has been an awesome game to work on. I am a big music nerd. I did a lot of music throughout my entire life. Play trumpet, play saxophone, play violin. and I grew up listening to some Guns N' Roses music. I'm into rock and roll, heavy rock, hard rock, alt rock. And so working on a game with Slash, who is probably the most iconic guitar player of all time, has been great. And he is a person who is so passionate about everything he does and just never took his foot off the gas when he was working with me on the game. Every single detail that I discussed with him daily. I would send him daily updates on, hey, here's this, here's this concept for art, this concept for rules, and he'd reply back within 10 minutes. And this was back pre-COVID when he was still out on tour. I mean, I'm like, hey man, where are you today? Oh, I'm in New Zealand. Hey man, where are you today? I'm in Germany doing a concert. Like, holy crap. He is all over the place, but always keeps this game close to his heart and something he's passionate about working on. This project was extremely important to Slash. It is his pet project. He got the rest of the band members involved and excited about it, but he was the go-to guy. He was the guy that I talked to every day. He hooked me up with the rest of the band to get audio clips from them, to get music stuff from them, but it was always Slash as a primary contact and the guy who just lived and breathed pinball all the time. slash loves pinball he approached us because he wanted a game made with passion and wanted it to be the best game possible back in 2013 I think is when they first started talking about this game and then the not in this lifetime tour started happening in 2015 and to date it's one of the highest grossing concerts of all time gross revenue of 500 million dollars for these guys so we've seen the game around the not in this lifetime tour because it's so prevalent it's still a group that's being seen by hundreds of thousands of people every year pre-covid but they're coming back next year and it's something that they really wanted to have happen it's just it's a cool game and cool relevancy to what they're currently doing the most passionate rock band of all time chose us the most passionate pinball company of all time to make the game for them My vision for the game was to make the concert. Concert experience. Bring it home. What do you see at a concert? You've got lights, you've got amps, you've got the crowd going crazy, pyrotechnics, a big stage with lights everywhere, moving spotlights, and then also incorporate all of the different band members and their instruments. We've got drumsticks that the ball actually moves on, We've got the pop numbers that act as drums. We've got cymbals that move and react. We've got the keyboard across the middle of the game The Fender headstock up at the top We got the slash style Gibson headstock in the middle and just have all these instruments pick shaped guitar spinners That glow and light up is just having everything music and band related and a concert experience That what this is You are at the concert You are living their set list and you are living the show

The band provided 18 three-hour concert recordings from the Not in This Lifetime tour for video assets

high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'I think we have 18 three-hour long concerts that they sent us and they said, pick concert footage from these and put it in the game.'

  • Jersey Jack used four artists to create game artwork, including Arian Mueller for cabinet artwork (65 Guns N' Roses tour posters) and Dane Henry Jr. for playfield

    high confidence · Eric Meunier: 'The limited edition artwork package on the cabinet was created by a guy named Arian Mueller... The playfield package was done by a new artist to Pinball. His name's Dane Henry Jr.'

    • Jersey Jack Pinball
    company
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Not in This Lifetime Tourevent
    Data Eastcompany
    Gibsoncompany
    Fendercompany
    Straight Down the Middleorganization

    personnel_signal: Jersey Jack expanded engineering team specifically for Guns N' Roses project with multiple programmers handling rule systems, device drivers, Bluetooth/internet connectivity, and new firmware development

    high · Keith Johnson: 'The main thing that was different about working on this title is that we have more programmers than we've had before working on a game title.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Three-tier product strategy with intentional feature distribution: Standard Edition at lower price point for broader placement, Limited Edition with upper playfield and enhanced features, Collector's Edition with maximum lighting and topper speaker system (50+ additional sounds)

    high · Eric Meunier on Standard: 'The standard edition is priced lower than we ever priced the games before... I wanted more of these games out in locations.' On Collector's: 'Just the blow your hair back melt your face off with all the lights... over 600 RGB LEDs in the collector's edition.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Game explicitly ships in family-friendly mode by default; explicit content (4-5 songs with profanity) only accessible when adult content mode is manually enabled; Meunier refused to use radio edits

    high · Eric Meunier: 'These games are all going to ship from the factory in family-friendly settings... I refused to put in radio edits of their songs. So you will not be able to experience those songs unless the game is set to adult content.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Hot Rails patented lighting feature along sides of game described as unprecedented level of illumination in pinball (fully RGB on Limited/Collector's Edition, white on Standard)

    high · Eric Meunier: 'The Hot Rails, which are such a fun device that we've gone through and patented because it's so cool. And the light shows that it brings to a game unlike anything I've ever seen before.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Introduction of new sensor technology at Jersey Jack Pinball combining proximity sensors with integrated RGB lighting in tight spaces, used for skill shot detection and insert-like functionality

    high · Joe Raymond: 'We have new types of sensors in the game that are very reliable and can fit into tight places... So the sensors are a combination of proximity, and also we have RGBs under each one too. So it looks like an insert, but it's really a switch.'

    • 6:33
    My goal is to create the greatest music experience in a pinball machine. I didn't want it to be similar to the other game, the early Data East game that John did. And I purposefully never played that game while I was working on this. and I never looked at it. Because obviously there's going to be similarities, right? Same band. There's going to be similarities. But I purposefully didn't look at what was done in the past because I wanted to create a new experience and be just different. I wanted to make sure I wasn't accidentally, subconsciously looking at anything there. The other thing that I wanted to do was make sure the band wasn't set in a specific decade, in a specific era, right? So the reason that we went with this art style, this timeless, zombie, skeletal look in the art style, is because this band has been famous for over 30 years. They're iconic and they're timeless, and we wanted to represent that in the artwork. When you step up to this game, your objective is to get the band on stage and play a kick-ass show. Some of the key components on this game are the different instruments and how they're represented. We've got a Gibson headstock that locks up a ball, that locks up six balls. We've got a fender headstock that Duff plays where the ball rolls down and goes down four different base strings. Really cool wire form. We've got the Hot Rails, which are such a fun device that we've gone through and patented because it's so cool. And the light shows that it brings to a game unlike anything I've ever seen before. And it's hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain. We've got more lights in this game than we've ever had in the past, more lights than any Jersey Jack game has had, and it really goes crazy. I mean, there's over 200 in the standard edition, and then over 350 in the limited edition, and over 600 RGB LEDs in the collector's edition version of the game. Other aspects in this that make it feel like a concert experience, the ramps, the return ramps, are not just simple wire forms. They're actually made to look like catwalks, which I thought was really fun, a really fun take on the return ramp. I didn't just want the simple wire form. I wanted to do something new and cool. So we made them look like catwalks. The stage, we represented their stage very well. If you look at pictures of the Not In This Lifetime concert, if you've ever been to one, they have these hexagonal light boxes on top of their stage, and we recreated that in the game. So it is like you are at the concert. You're looking at what's happening on the stage, you're looking at live footage in the back glass, and you're also looking at what is shown at the Not In This Lifetime concerts on their big screens, on their Jumbotrons. I think we have 18 three-hour long HD concerts that they sent us and they said, pick concert footage from these and put them in the game. Asset Overload. I mean, they were so awesome to work with. all the music we wanted, all the video effects we wanted, their real effects from the concerts, still photography of all the band. We got access to their photographer, and they just sent us thousands of photos to use in the game and for inspiration for the artwork. And their tour posters, like every tour poster that was created for Not In This Lifetime we had access to, and they're in the game. They're part of, as you're touring around, you get to see the different concert tour posters for each unique location. that created a unique poster everywhere they went. So it was a really cool thing. So speaking of the posters, one of the artists we used, there were four that were used in creating the whole game, all three versions of the game. The limited edition artwork package on the cabinet was created by a guy named Arian Bueller. And if you're a Guns N' Roses fan, you'll know Arian because he's done about 65 of their tour posters. So band management got me in contact with him, and he did the limited edition cabinet artwork and then did an original piece for our collector's edition. We took the Appetite for Destruction album, the what would be considered explicit artwork from their album cover, and adapted it to use in a pinball machine. So Arian took those key, those figures from the art and put them on the side of the cabinet in a way that was never done before, and it looks fantastic. Plus, it's all mirrored. mirrored radcals on the sea.
    11:00
    The playfield package was done by a new artist to Pinball. His name's Dane Henry Jr. He's a guy out of California. And I saw his art online. He was doing artwork for tour posters. He did some Foo Fighters. He did some 311s, some Metallica. I saw his art and just fell in love with it. Reached out to the guy and got him to do some hand-drawn artwork of the band. And he was a little starstruck when he actually got to meet Slash and talk to him and do his likeness up. But he really knocked it out of the park. His style is just so sick and works on a pinball machine so well. Really excited to find him. Here's a unique example of how Slash contributed to the design of the game. I was stuck. There's a rule in the game where you're playing multiball during a song, and we wanted to come up with something that makes you think of jackpots, something awesome in a concert setting of the band just did something fantastic, again here's the name of that award so when you're playing the game and you're in multi-ball during a song if you can lock re-lock all of those balls on the upper play field you're given an award didn't just want it to be called jackpot so i got slash on skype and i'm talking through these rules with him and trying to come up with what is a good musical term you know i'm thinking of things that a music nerd knows like crescendo and he's just like no we don't say crescendo in rock and roll dude uh and i'm like okay so what what can this be like grandstand light show pyrotechnic explosion and slash is like how about power cord and i'm just like dude that's it that's the perfect word you know and so if you can relock all the balls in multiball during a song you get the power cord jackpot and it's just you know just having him like on speed dial being able to call him and five minutes later have a solution to a problem where it from him and it fits with their theme and their mentality on what we call this stuff it just it was awesome so this game has something for everybody um the standard edition is priced lower than we ever priced games before at jjp which is awesome i pushed hard for that because i wanted more of these games out in locations and i wanted more people to have them in their homes it plays fast really fast it's a quick shooting quick flowing game uh these limited edition with the upper play field all the extra bells and whistles that are there the moving spotlights just adds more to that concert experience and then the collector's edition is just the blow your hair back melt your face off with all the lights i mean it is just crazy over the top with the topper that adds 50 more sound to the game i mean it is just it is crazy this speaker system that we put in up top in the topper so the sound the light shows the videos the rules The fact that you're playing real songs that don't just get cut out. You're not just playing snippets of music. You're playing the full nine and a half minutes of November Rain. You're playing Live and Let Die. You're playing Welcome to the Jungle. The whole thing. And it's up to you if you want to stop and cash out early to end the song early. Got to set up sessions to do voice work with Slash, which was cool. Slash is a pretty mellow guy. and in he the first thing he did when he came into the studio was just like eric this is my least favorite thing to do in the world i do not like public speaking i'm like slash you play concerts in front of 50 million people like i know but i don't like talking so we got him in there he's just like okay jackpot my slash come on man kick it up a notch so we gotta you know get a little more excited jackpot you're the super jackpot stuff like that um and duff is the same way he doesn't like to speak a lot but we got him to do a session too and his session was fantastic because i sent him the script and it was like 700 lines or something like that and he's like yeah eric i read over the script i didn't print it off so can you just read each line for me first and then i'll read it back to you and i'm like sure man no problem so we're going through line by line by line and then we get into you know this game has an adult setting has an explicit content setting so there's a lot of voice calls out there that say some some obscene things right some things that are meant for adults to hear. So when I would start laughing because I couldn't contain myself because I knew I was going to have to make Duff McKagan, one of the biggest rock stars in the world, say, quit pounding your pud and plunge your ball,
    15:19
    I couldn't keep it together. And then Melissa Reese is their keyboardist, and she's awesome. She is one of the most talented musicians I've ever met, and, I mean, classically trained in opera voice and piano and just knows how to blow everything up. And getting her to do voice work in the game too, she has a very bubbly, excitable personality. She really brings a lot of that magic we were looking for to the voice work in the game. These games are all going to ship from the factory in family-friendly settings. There are four, five songs that have explicit content in them, and I was not the person. I refused to put in radio edits of their songs. So you will not be able to experience those songs unless the game is set to adult content. Never before have I experienced, and anyone here, this kind of cooperation with a licensor, this amount of content given to us, this amount of push from them to present the license in the best way possible. Are we ever going to see a game like this again? Probably not in this lifetime.
    16:25
    Hi, my name is Keith Johnson. I am the director of software here at Jersey Jack Pinball and the lead software engineer on Guns N' Roses. The main thing that was different about working on this title is that we have more programmers than we've had before working on a game title. And each of them did various different stuff. Working on rule systems, working on device drivers, stuff like that. Working on Bluetooth and internet connectivity. And also working on the firmware for new boards that we have in this game as well. When we started the project, Slash made it clear that they wanted it to be the tour experience. Not necessarily just about the band or whatever, but they wanted it to be not in this lifetime, that tour. So I went and saw their performance in Chicago with some other people from the company and It was an AV extravaganza, you know, the likes of which I hadn't really seen before personally. I don't go to a lot of concerts, but this one was really something. So the main thing I felt like we had to get in this game was the AV masterpiece that those guys put out. And believe me, I think we accomplished that in this game. When you walk up to the game, the main goal of the game is to shoot the different playfield areas that relate to each individual band member. So you want to get all the band members together, ready for the concert, and then we start the concert. You start a song. You can pick it if you want. Otherwise, you get whatever. Then during that song, you get the full concert experience of that song. So you're listening to the music, you're getting a light show, the likes of which you've never seen before, and a couple other surprises along the way, like maybe even you make an appearance. This game is great because anyone can walk up to the game, collect a few band members, maybe get a little help along the way, and no matter what, they will be able to start a song at some point in the game and get that song experience, which is really the central whole point of the game. Everyone can enjoy this game. I'm Joe Katz, programmer here at Jersey Jack Pinball, and I worked on the new Guns N' Roses pinball machine. One of the cool things I worked on in Guns N' Roses is the booster multiballs. When you're playing the game, you reach a point where you get to experience one of the songs. During a song, you have a song meter that is determining how well you're doing in the song. You are actually trying to perform well to keep the song going If you don do well and miss a bunch of shots you could be booed off stage One of the things the Concert Booster MultiBalls does is slow the decay of that meter down One of the coolest moments of the game has to be playing Live and Let Die You get
    19:29
    this when you play the game, but each song has certain moments that choreograph perfectly to the music, and Live and Let Die has definitely got a bunch of eye-bleeding moments that are just going to be, you know, whoa man, I can't believe that this is happening. Those are a lot of fun. A couple of the cool things from a programming standpoint, it was really fun integrating the lighting effects with the record wheel on the game. It matches the velocity and the spinning of the wheel perfectly. We have new types of sensors in the game that are very reliable and can fit into tight places and get really close to each other. So the sensors are a combination of proximity, and also we have RGBs under each one too. So you have the RGB light and the sensor basically right next to each other. So it looks like an insert, but it's really a switch. So right in the shooter lane, the first thing you do in the game for the skill shot, you pull the ball up and you try to get it to the one that's blinking the most.
    20:40
    And the sensor is right there, right where the light is blinking. The ball is detected without hitting any physical switch. It's a great innovative feature that we're happy to introduce on this game. So one of the things we're able to do in this game, largely because of our new sensors, is we have a guitar lock up on the upper play field for the LE and CE. And basically you lock up to six balls up there and have them all come out at the start of multi-ball at the start of a song. It's a great moment having all those balls just start shooting at you. The biggest innovation we have on this game in terms of lighting is our new hot rails along the side of the game. On the LE and the CE they're fully full-colored lights that light up and glow beautifully. And on the SE they're white. They add a level of general illumination that we haven't seen in pinball before. We had unprecedented licensing help from not only Slash but the band managers in order to get access to all these people and all these assets. It was fantastic to work with. Getting access to Gibson, Fender, Marshall, Bader, and incorporating those assets into the game just helps make it feel more and more like a concert experience, I think. So Slash has visited us a couple of times, and that was definitely a surreal experience meeting him. The guy is unbelievable. He's totally cool. I look forward to what he can do to help get this game out there and to lots of people's I can't wait for everyone to experience this game. It's not like a game that you've played before. It's definitely not like a music game that you've played before. This is a new pinball experience and it's been our pleasure bringing it to you. My favorite moment in the game has to be catching in a giant song jackpot and just taking it to the other player. You know, you just get that big mic drop moment where you go, boom, I nailed the jackpot. I like that. That's good. Eat it. I'm jealous of that. Right, so I was on Skype with him, and Ken walks in the room, he's like, hey man, what's going on? I'm like, I'm trying to figure this thing out with Slash. And I turn, and Ken's just like,
    23:29
    honor and a privilege to meet you. I love your music! I'm leaving here! Without hearing the questions being... Am I okay right here?
    23:45
    You ready? That was perfect. Look at Eric just speak. You cutting into my shot? Yeah, calm down. All right. Now, whenever we are speaking, we're projecting a little bit. Projecting. I told Keith, I was like, it's like you're kind of in a bar. It's not like a noisy bar. Right. You don't want to be yelling. Right. There's a hum in the bar. You got to talk up a little bit. Right. One of those kind of things. Gotcha. I thought you were going to bark something. Right. I wouldn't step foot in a bar these days. so it's a bitch break time that was a good one that was a good one no real taste on that you don't want to touch that so one of the things we're able to do in this game it's like i'm getting that's about right Ken's making me nervous over there. Nah, I'm just kidding. You've seen me talk plenty at this point. Joe's my main guy here. I know.
    24:53
    I'm recording here. Everything's good. Good, good, good? Uh, yeah. Best marketing department at pinball.
    25:02
    Best marketing department at pinball. Pinside would disagree with that, but yeah. you failed I hate this I'll use that in the b-roll just say I hate this like three times
    25:40
    Thank you.